Stephen Doody gets his 500th training win

More than four decades after his first success, Palmerton North-based trainer Stephen Doody trained his 500th harness racing winner at Cambridge on Thursday night.

It came with Johnny Who (What The Hill), driven by nephew Andre Poutama, in the Raceday With Betavet Handicap Trot.

JOHNNY WHO REPLAY

After starting safely Johnny Who settled four back the fence before getting into the one-one briefly. The combo then peeled at the home turn before finishing strongly for the What The Hill five-year-old’s eighth career victory.

“I am stoked,” Doody told Track Chat’s Jo Ferguson post race, “I am quite proud of what I’ve done.”

“There have been some ups and downs but you get over them and carry on.”

His first training success came with Super Lorette, who he also drove, at Te Awamutu in 1982.

Of the 43 years he’s been training his most successful wins-wise was the 34 he had in 2011.

He rates his best horses as Braig and Te Kawau.

Braig won 18 races and raced against the country’s best trotters at the time. Among his top performances was a second in the Group 1 New Zealand Trotting Championships at Addington in 2010.

“He was a great trotter who gave us some great times.”

Te Kawau was a Group winner. Among his 12 wins was the 4 and 5YO Futurity Stakes (Group 2) at Cambridge in 2015.

“He also won the Winter Cup down there (Addington),” says Doody, “he was a great little horse.”

In 2015 he earned stakes of over $100K. Another of his top results that year was a second behind Sky Major in the Group 1 4YO Emerald at the Harness Jewels at Ashburton.

To go with his 500 training successes, Doody has also driven 483 winners since his days as a junior driver in the 1990s.

As for the future?

“I’ll keep training seven or eight and keep going,” he says, “whatever comes along comes along.”

It’s a laid back approach which seems to be working just fine.

For complete race results, click here.

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk